Saturday, February 9, 2013

One Man’s Maple Moon: Butterfly Tanka by Joyce S. Greene

English Original

butterflies dance
with waving flowers --
housebound
I look outside and wonder
if the world is safe today

Eucalypt, 11, Dec. 2011

Joyce S. Greene


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

蝴蝶與花朵
一起共舞 --
在家不能外出
往窗外看, 心想
今日世界是否安全

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

蝴蝶与花朵
一起共舞 --
在家不能外出
往窗外看, 心想
今日世界是否安全


Bio Sketch

Joyce S. Greene lives with her husband in upstate New York, USA, and works as an accountant at an insurance company.  She began writing Japanese short form poetry in 2009.  A number of her poems have been published in tanka journals and in three tanka anthologies, Catzilla! and two volumes of Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, and one of her tanka was featured on the back cover of  Ribbons,  and, more recently, another was selected for the Ribbons Tanka Cafe Member's Choice Award.  In addition, one of her haiku tied for first place in the Haiku this Haiga competition sponsored by Haiga Online.

1 comment:

  1. The shift, thematic and perceptual, in the lower verse is psychologically effective, and L5 carries the most weight while, structurally speaking, L3 is well-placed.

    On a breezy day nothing looks lifeless (which is implied in Ls 2&3), L5 indicates the speaker's state of mind in the context of L3.

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